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Hera never brings him food herself. She does usually help prepare it – she has a better sense of the Terran diet than most, and when it comes down to it, she doesn't fully trust the others not to poison a meal they know is going to their half-Terran 'guest.' But she always finds someone she does trust to take it into him. And then, at first, she'd waited, leaving him to eat alone before she entered his room.

She kept to the first. But the second, she gradually eased. Hera remembered how total her isolation had been, and what had eased in her when she'd grown used to sharing meals. That was something she could do, even if she wouldn't serve him.

So the time she waits becomes shorter and shorter. Until today, when it's only a few minutes after seeing Muroc exit the makeshift cabin that she approaches. She nods to the guard, and then though she doesn't have to, she knocks on the door. She doesn't wait for an answer before entering the room.

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Again, Hera shows no surprise at this.

"I don't think we have much of a choice."

Edited 2018-08-16 19:39 (UTC)

"You can't feel them like I -- "

He shivers.

"No," she agrees, quietly.

"I haven't felt them like that."

"I know it's different. Not worse, not -- I know."

He's not looking at her again.

Hera again waits, silent, unsure if he's going to continue. She understands his words, though she's not entirely sure why he said it. She could ask, could try to further understand these emotions. Or -

She taps her finger to the next piece over. "This is a bishop. It can move any number of squares, but only diagonally."

A pause, and then she admits, "I'm not entirely sure what a bishop is."

Even after having read about it, what she knows is still 'some kind of priest.'

"It's nothing I've heard before, either. Not -- "

He cuts himself off again.

Back home is no longer accurate, but he isn't sure how else to describe it.

"Is the diagonal significant?"

"I'm not sure."

Or at least, she's not sure what 'significant' would mean. "It means the bishop can only access half the board -" With her finger, Hera draws a line from one of her bishops along the black squares accessible to it. "- but its pair can reach the other."

"It makes for a different kind of flanking maneuver, I guess."

He's studying the board, reaching out to slide his own fingertips along the white diagonal, gaze flicking from each piece to the next, seeing what moves might be possible.

"And a lot of misdirection."

Edited 2018-08-17 02:36 (UTC)

"Easier to overlook," Hera agrees.

She skips the next piece, instead touching the last in the row. "This is the rook. It can move vertically -" Again, finger over the board to demonstrate, "- and horizontally."

"Being deceptive with straight lines seems . . . a lot more difficult."

It's something to think about.

"But it's easier to maneuver," she notes.

"And intimidating, sometimes. Like a blunt weapon."

"A blunt weapon, huh?"

He musters up a smile, but it's faint, and it doesn't last.

"I could do that."

Again, Hera considers this, but doesn't answer. Her fingers move back to the piece next to the rook.

"This is the knight. Its movement is different from any of the others, it's always in an 'L' shape, like -"

She actually lifts the knight, and demonstrates the movement, over the row of pawns and across the board a few times, so that Kanan will get the idea.

"It's also the only piece that can jump over others."

"Is that a metaphor for rising in the ranks?"

From the lower rungs it looks like that's how everyone gets ahead. It wasn't so long ago that Kanan was still trying to reach higher.

"Or another way of being unexpected?"

"I don't think it's a metaphor."

She moves the knight back to its starting square. "But it's more useful near the center of the board, or where your opponent's pieces are. Its movement helps it evade others, even when close to them."

"The whole game seems like a series of symbols for something else," Kanan says, but there's nothing argumentative in it. Just the energy of interest, and curiosity, and --

Anyway.

"Why near the center?"

"Because it has fewer options along the sides of the board."

She a hand over the board again, demonstrating each piece's movement as she describes them.

"A rook or a bishop has a wide range of movement even at the edges of the board, but a knight is more limited."

"But if everyone knows you need your knights at the center -- can't that be used against you, too?"

He's reached out to pick up one of his knights, idly turning it between his fingers, even as his attention appears fixed on the game board.

"In that experienced players can anticipate their opponents' strategies, yes."

Her eyes follow the piece in his hand. "That's also part of the game play."

Edited 2018-08-17 16:03 (UTC)

He looks up at her at that.

"Do you win a lot?"

"I win more than when I started."

Hera isn't one for modesty, but it's hard to say 'a lot,' given her most frequent opponent.

He swallows, still looking at her.

"Is it the winning you like, or the figuring out your opponent?"

His fingers are clenched tightly around the knight in his hand.

She watches him in return, her eyes flickering to his hands. Clearly this question is important to him, though she isn't really sure why. But even if she could lie, she sees no point in answering anything but honestly.

"I like the challenge of developing strategies," she says, slowly, "and carrying them out."

After a few more seconds of thought, "And I like the safety of losing without consequence. It lets me explore risks I wouldn't otherwise."

He exhales, sagging back, gaze dropping back to the knight that he replaces on the board. Carefully.

"Yeah, that . . . that sounds really good right now."

It seems like she's given something close to the right answer. If that were ever really possible.

Hera turns her eyes back down to the board, now reaching for -

"This is a pawn." She taps the piece in front of her knight. "It can only move forward, one square, except on its first move, when it can move two. And it can only take other pieces -"

She lifts the pawn to demonstrate. "- by moving forward one square, but diagonally."